Lipid Profile and Impulsivity in Suicidal Patients with Major Depression

Abstract

Suicide is a fatal act that represents the person’s wish to die. In psychiatry, suicide is a primary emergency. Suicide rates have continued to rise in recent decades, despite ongoing clinical and research efforts of prevention. In 2012, suicide was the second leading cause of death among 15–29 year olds. Whilst the causes of completed suicide are multifactorial, depression and impulsivity are considered main culprits. Other psychiatric disorders including BAD, anxiety disorders, SUD, eating disorders and OCD as well as personality disorders. Psychiatric comorbidities are known to increase the risk of suicide. Other vulnerability factors for suicide that contribute to risk are; gender, age, cultural acceptability of suicide, legal definitions of suicide, unemployment, physical illness, family history of suicide, or childhood adversities. Suicide is complicated and tragic but it is often preventable. And since suicide risk assessment currently relies on a patient’s voluntary self-report and a clinician’s judgment, a more objective, biologically based model of suicide risk assessment may yield biomarkers with increased prediction accuracy, facilitate identification of high-risk patients, and focus more intense preventive interventions on that group.